A Very Different Beginning
by Gemmaaaaa
Summary: The first time Peter Pan meets Wendy Darling, he's six years old.


The first time Peter Pan meets Wendy Darling, he's six years old. She has charming smile and a pretty "hello" to offer him, the kind he isn't quite used to people directing toward him.

(Usually people frown and glare at the boy who set fire to an tree-house and watched it burn to ashes.)

The strange girl plays with a golden ringlet almost shyly; Peter wonders if Wendy's head was ever kissed by the sun's fiery lips, how else could her hair be so bright?

Her cheerful smile descends into something resembling confusion toward the silent boy and Peter finally remembers how to speak, "I'm Peter." He even remembers his manners enough to bow; mother would be pleased...

This seems to appease the girl who - with the largest grin, he had ever seen, curtseys back with the grace of a Princess.

"I'm Wendy...Wendy, Moira, Angela Darling."

Peter only had time to raise an eyebrow over what must be the longest name in all of history, but unfortunately his mother arrives to grab him by the arm and reprimand him for running off.

The boy merely rolls his eyes in return.

That was the day their mother's became friends, the two women chat never-endingly.

"It's nice to meet you, Peter," Wendy continues as if they had not just been interrupted.

Stupid girl.

.

From that moment on, Peter Pan hears much more about Wendy Darling and her family from his mother, father, their friends. The talk of the sweet Darling family is entirely inescapable.

The Darling and Pan family's merge for a small 'get together' one night soon after first meeting; Peter would rather be at home in his garden; feeling the dirt and grass beneath his fingers and toes, than be forced into behaving all night. How dull. However he's dragged along by his mother's hand.

Once again Wendy Darling greets him with a large, welcoming smile, draped in a pretty pink gown; Peter offers her a boyish grin in return however it vanishes when his mother pats him on the back and clears her throat loudly.

With a scowl, he grabs Wendy's hand and very much against his will - since his mother has threatened him with simply horrendous outcomes if he does not play along - and places a kiss over her milk-white knuckles. The girl's face positively lights up from the gesture, something he ignorantly ignores in favour of repeating the sentence his mother has forced him to rehearse and memorize.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Miss Darling."

.

By the time Peter Pan turns ten, he stops playing with Wendy Darling. He much prefers the company of his new friend's Felix, with the long scar halving his face and a group of other boys. They always let him be the King and he makes them his knights.

Such fun.

His mother attempts to say he's shy around girls...Peter Pan, shy...How ridiculous, his response is to scowl and mutter to himself that he simply doesn't want to play with such a stupid girl.

Wendy, of course, glares daggers at him and sticks out her tongue, she's come to the conclusion that Peter Pan is nothing but a boring boy since he never wants to play dress up, house or dolls. Her frustration toward him always snaps when he doesn't seem at all fazed by her actions or insults. If anything, he smirks at them!

That's when she learns to throw punches when their parents aren't looking.

.

His family visits hers a rather a lot, especially when George Darling is promoted to the same office as Peter's father. Thus, being with princess Darling becomes an almost daily endurance.

She's feisty, and utterly impossible. One day, he watches as she braids her hair and he yanks it as hard as he can.

She had kicked his shin not five minutes before!

But of course she pretends to cry, weeping for her mother and he receives the scolding of a lifetime. His jade eyes shift toward the blonde brat over the shoulder of his irritated mother, to be met with a teasing smirk.

Sly, sly girl.

That is the moment Peter Pan decides that he hates Wendy Darling; and that he has no use for stupid girls.

.

Wendy Darling is twelve years old when she decides that she hates Peter Pan and his smug smirks.

Despite daily protests and complaints, their families insist on the stupid gatherings. John and Michel are never forced to come along, it simply is not fair! The blonde twists her golden hair into a lazy braid and dawns a simple floral gown that night.

(Why should she bother to look nice for someone so utterly immature?)

When they arrive at the Pan household; Wendy wasn't surprised to see him hiding behind a tree with a tall lanky boy named Felix - her mother always refuses to explain what exactly had happened to the his face - with piles of mud ready to be fired at her.

The mud stains her gown; and outrage floods through her. Why were they always so horrid? The two boys run as fast and far from her as they could and she although she tries her hardest to catch at least one of them, they climbed the stupid ladder to the tree house that Peter calls his "Neverland"...

They pull the ladder up before she has a chance to grab a hold of it and for the first time Wendy notices the sign that reads, "no girls allowed!"

"Grow up!" The blonde girl hisses at the sniggering boys before marching toward the house.

Though she could swear she hears Peter hiss the word "never" as she goes.

.

Peter is fifteen years old when he hears the news that Mary Darling has passed away of some sickness not even the best doctors could help her fight.

Being young and stupid, Peter isn't entirely sure how to approach such a subject. He offers his condolences to Wendy, who sits grimly at the opposing end of the dining table at his mother's request, her brothers are off somewhere with some other friend. The entire meal is drowned in a sombre atmosphere.

When the boy finds the courage to spare a glance at the Darling girl, she looks timid and broken. He hasn't ever seen her that way before.

Peter is surprised to find her in the park later in the evening just strolling around the pond watching the ducks and swans swim quietly.

"She—she promised to get better..." Wendy mutters beneath her breath, those blue eyes look at him, shining with unshed tears and in that moment he forgets that he hates the girl and pulls her frame against his. Arms wrap tightly around her fragile body, seeking to comfort.

That night Peter Pan swears he will never see her so heartbroken again.

.

The night of Wendy Darling's seventeenth birthday party, Peter brings Felix along; Wendy spies the pair from her bedroom window. She pins her long locks up, revealing her long neck and tightens her corset just enough...

"Please don't tell me you're jealous..." Felix groans, adding to Pan's annoyance. Courting couples dance together, while others mingle, eat, drink but Peter Pan simply leans his back against the wall with narrow eyes and crossed arms.

The taller boy scowls and glances toward the offending girl, who toys with a loose lock of golden hair whilst smiling up at the son of Lord Gold, a fearsome man who owned many of the homes and businesses in their city. Baelfire. The single moment of silence between songs was interrupted by Wendy's sweet laughter, as Bae pushes a of stand of hair behind her ear and whispers something into her ear.

Somewhere beside them the girl Lily swoons over how 'lucky' Wendy is to have such a marvellous suitor.

Peter wants to punch the boy until his nose cracks and blood stains his knuckles; it wouldn't be the first time he'd brawled over Wendy Darling. Not that she would ever find out.. He wants desperately to drag Wendy away from the boy by the fucking hair if need be...Part of him roars that it should be him, there flirting, touching her, making her laugh...He's endured her company enough over the years to think of the girl exclusively as his.

Because that's what she is.

"You're jealous," his friend states surely and Peter almost smacks him instead for being too loud. Angry, Pan storms out, the echoing slam of the door is the least of his cares.

If he stayed just a little longer, he would have witnessed the seventeen year old beauty focus her gaze to where the boy had previously stood, with a smirk across her reddened lips.

.

That summer Wendy realizes it is rather entertaining having a boy or two - if one could count Felix - over.

The trio enjoy each other's company, though betting quickly becomes part of their fun, innocent bets soon transcend to sinister, wicked, games that end with punishment or humiliation.

Usually both.

One such game had seen, Peter having to jump into a pond after dark.

The boy was enthusiastic to do it, despite how little he actually wants to jump into the ice-cold water but Peter Pan never failed a challenge.

He didn't expect, however, that Wendy and Felix would run off with his clothes...

.

Wendy Darling is eighteen years old when Peter kisses her for the first time.

She kisses him back, a little too forcefully and excited it was after all her first kiss. She's almost too aware that it isn't Peter's however...Peter Pan is known for his multiple female friends. Especially the ones who spend the night...

Sometimes in the dark cover of night; Wendy wonders which girl he's invited to warm his bed that night, and wonders why he never asks her...Though she'd slap his smug face if he ever dared

Thoughts she never allows herself in the light of day.

He pulls away first, with his usual smirk; her eyes are half lidded and bright; although that could be blamed on the dimly lit room they're sitting in - Peter's room.

Territory she had invaded multiple times by that point.

However never at night.

He doesn't fail to notice the way her hands fidget in her lap nervously, and the way her hair is still so damn luminescent in the darkness is his room. Her soft lips are puckered for him and her cheek were flushed red and god he wants to kiss her all over again.

"Perhaps I should leave…" Her perfect teeth bite uneasily into the pillow of her bottom lip and he doesn't really know how he has the strength to resist taking her there and then, to brand her with his touch and officially make her his...

.

On night before Peter's nineteenth birthday she stays the night with him for the first time.

She's dressed in a hooded cloak and stands in his garden. He only realizes who exactly was throwing pebbles at his window when she commands him to get down.

"This is a little reversed, isn't it Darling?" he laughs as he climbs down. They'd done this more than once, though this was the first time she snuck out of her home and came to his.

The soon to be a man exposes her face as he pushes back her hood. Her blonde hair falls freely in wild curls and tangles and for the first time in a very long time Peter sees her face without any of the cosmetic touches she insists are necessary.

This Wendy is far more beautiful than the porcelain doll usually presented to suitors at some party or another. He likes her wild, cheeks flushed, mud and grass staining her skirts as they play...That's the Wendy he enjoys...

"It's dangerous for a girl to be out at night..." he murmurs as they walk along the rose hedges his mother tends to every afternoon.

He wants to ask exactly why she'd come, however rain begins to sprinkle above their heads and before Peter can tell her to come back inside, Wendy runs to the other side of the garden, head up, smiling widely with arms raised, twirling as the water droplets fell over her.

Peter can only stare, curious and amazed at her desire to dance in the rain in the middle of the night in his garden.

The next thing he's aware of is her lips on his.

Adrenaline courses through their veins and warmth seeps through their skin, chests heaving yet they don't stop. Wendy tangles her slender, fingers in his wet, hair and he runs his palms over her slim waist to hold her against him.

The two get carried away, and Wendy becomes one of the girls to spend a night in Peter Pan's bed.

She doesn't know he doesn't intend to take any other girl to bed from that moment on.

When she wakes in the morning, her eyes roam across his chest and she whispers with a tired voice, "happy birthday."

.

Peter Pan is twenty years old when she kisses him wearing a white silk gown and crimson on her lips, but nothing is really all that different.

They're still the same little, six-year olds that met on in the park all those years ago; who'd belonged to each other ever since.


End file.
